“Linked by secure video, Bush's confidence on Aug. 28 starkly contrasts with the dire warnings his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials provided during the four days before the storm.”Let’s see: “his disaster chief and a cacophony of federal, state and local officials” were preaching “dire warnings” leading up to the storm. So they knew about it. And somehow this sheds light on why the state and local officials were so ineffective and why Michael Brown has been universally derided for his efforts: because George Bush was briefed by all these people before Katrina hit.

“In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans' Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.”

If I’m the president and all these people (including state & local) are telling me that things could be bad…well, it sounds to me like they’re preparing for it because that’s kind of their jobs. Left out of this article is any sense of exactly what the President was supposed to do? Put in stronger levees? Move the Superdome? This strikes me as just another instance of much ado about nothing new.

[Update: After further review, my original comment specifically about Governor Blanco was unfair and has been deleted. HT - MK]

No, the news is that the WH lied about it. You idiots impeached Clinton for perjuring himself about getting head from an intern in the Oval Office, but, faced with video evidence, you still try to find a way out for these jerks.

Can you clarify what you mean by this statement: "why it took the Governor of Louisiana so long to officially ask the federal government for help". Louisiana had declared a state of emergency eight days (Aug 26) before Katrina struck. (link)Gov. Blanco asked Bush to declare a state o emergency the next day (Aug 27), which was granted the same day. (link)

Matt - you're right I should have been more clear (and probably fairer to Gov. Blanco)...stuck in my mind was the timeline of requesting National Guard help (and not just the return of LA NGers from Iraq)which still was not dispositive in the end result. I will correct.

We were discussing this issue in my Public Budgeting class. I think people forget to understand that the city level government should be taking 70%, if not all the blame. But all the city council members, mayors, and city administrators dating back to the late 1970's should really be the ones to blame. They were given money thirty years ago and years there after on the issue concerning the levees. The problem was that they took the money from the levees and placed it elsewhere. For example we have 100 dollars and they used, oh lets say $40 or $60 of that $100 for the levees. They then put the rest elsewhere into the city. Basically, if the money was given to build a 5 ft high levee wall, they built a 3 ft high levee wall. So they did get money from the budget along time ago for exactly that purpose. So they got what they paid for, a cheap levee. From a budget standpoint they were going over a Strategic Analysis which has to do with scenario writing, meaning what would happen if we had a flood. They simply failed to produce a levee which they were given money for.